The Rise Of Non-Heterosexual Women on Streaming: Empowering Or Exploitative?

As critics like to say, we’re in the middle of the third golden age of television, and things are looking delightfully diverse. Though our favorite shows still struggle when it comes to non-problematic representation, TV as a whole has gotten better at portraying people of different races, cultures, and sexualities. However, there’s one particular character that’s been coming up a lot lately. Your favorite streaming services really seem to love non-heterosexual women.

Increased representation is rarely a bad thing, and as GLAAD’s 2015 “Where We Are in TV” Diversity Report proves, we still have a long way to go. But when it comes to representing members of the LGBTQIA community, our favorite streaming originals like to show a disproportionate amount of love to L and B. It’s a trend that’s so oddly specific, it makes me raise an eyebrow. Is the increase in lesbian and bisexual women on television an empowering trend or is it just an excuse to add some women-focused sex scenes to your favorite shows?

It’s becoming more and more common to see lesbian and bisexual women in starring roles, from Orange is the New Black’s plethora of diverse and complicated inmates to the constantly-conflicted Pfefferman clan in Transparent. For the past two years, these two shows have been the heavy hitters when it comes to more female-centric LGBTQIA representation, but more and more shows have continued this trend. Jessica Jones featured a leading lesbian character as did Master of None and the Wachowski siblings’ Sense8. Even two episodes of Netflix’s recently released anthology series focus on non-heterosexual women — “Vegan Cinderella” in Easy and “San Junipero” in Black Mirror. Almost all of these are shows that I love passionately, but the fact that this increase in representation is so one-gendered is a bit odd. There’s a small, cynical part of me that thinks that maybe this increase in lesbian and bisexual women is closely connected streaming’s lack of traditional ratings.

For creators, part of the appeal of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu is that these services allow you to show and say just about anything. Graphic sex scenes, intensely violent murders, and delightfully profane monologues are all on the table, and often, those sex scenes involve non-heterosexual women. I’m so happy to have these amazing characters on screen, but sometimes it seems as if some of these characters merely exist to throw in a dash of non-traditional, sexy scandal. There’s a degree of objectification that exists for female-identifying members of the LGBTQIA community that doesn’t seem to exist as often for male-identifying members. There are exceptions. Both Hulu’s Difficult People and HBO‘s recently ended Looking focus on gay men. However, when it comes to streaming in 2016, non-heterosexuality seems to have a female focus.

Stories of female sexuality are complicated and powerful, and several shows that are currently on the air have done a marvelous job portraying that. In particular, Transparent’s handling of the ever-changing vortex of sexuality is sadly sweet, and Black Mirror’s recent exploration of one complicated relationship between two women is heartbreakingly beautiful. However, I think it’s worth stepping back and asking why there are so many non-heterosexual women in the wild west of streaming and so few men. It’s worth questioning if there’s a scandalous and exploitative edge to our love of lesbian and bisexual characters.